A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
by PriestessAmy
Summary: Victoria Chase is an up and coming hunter of all things paranormal. Her newest assignment has brought her to Arcadia Bay where it seems a werewolf has been creating quite a mess. Kate Marsh seems to be the obvious culprit. But she couldn't harm a fly. So who's the killer?
1. The Hunt Begins

"Welcome to Arcadia Bay! The Most Beautiful Town in America!"

Victoria had read a dozen signs with practically the same epigraph, each one ringing as hollow as the last. Because behind each sign was a city housing a monster or a demon or a maniac. Arcadia Bay was just the most recent in a long string of incidents that stretched back centuries. She, like her father before her, and his mother before him, and so on, was part of an organization that dealt with these incidents. In many ways, that made it almost boring – she was just the heiress to the family business, one franchisee among many, in one district of many, overseen by a council and blah blah blah... Victoria wasn't so interested in the bureaucracy, she just liked hitting the road and doing her job.

The job in question this time around was a missing girl, found mutilated. There was a local family who had operated for some time as independent hunters, preferring freedom away from the guild. Victoria admired that in a way. The trade-off seemed to be that they remained rooted in this one place. According to the Prescotts, Arcadia Bay was something of a magnet for weird shit. _I'll believe that when I see it,_ she mused quietly as she drove through the sleepy little town toward the family's massive estate. Victoria's family had money, but goddamn. The word 'mansion' actually applied here – dozens of bedrooms, what looked to be a carriage house around back, probably like three ballrooms. Even in nice jeans, shirt, and jacket, she still felt like an urchin in comparison to this place. A maid – a goddamn maid – greeted her when she rang the bell, and took her to a room filled with a variety of weapons and more than a few 'trophies'. Suddenly Victoria lost her stomach for the independent life. The Prescotts were clearly hunters in the traditional sense, taking whatever mementos they could from each kill and putting it up in a place of honor. A guy roughly her age was working at a table nearby, sorting through some documents. He turned and motioned for her to join, then passed her a small folder. "The murderer was likely a werewolf, based on the wounds she sustained and the amount of her that was consumed. As near as I can tell, only one person fits the MO, student Kate Marsh. She randomly disappears for a few nights every month, the usual."

Victoria opened the folder and began looking through the documents and pictures. An art student at the local academy, quiet, religious. On friendly terms with nice people, mostly ignored by the rest. It would certainly be a good cover for the kind of girl hiding sociopathic tendencies and a killer beast. "Anything else I need to know?"

"No transportation, so wherever she goes at night, it's either within walking distance or possibly by public transit."

She glanced over at him, brow furrowing slightly. "Okay... And... _You're_ going to be doing... what?"

The rich boy huffed and motioned to a pile of folders in front of him similar to the one he'd just given her. "Other things. Why do you think you're here, because we can't catch one werewolf? Look around you. The problem is quantity, not quality. You're B-team, second string. The guild assured us you were skilled at tracking, so go track. Confirm her status and execute. It's not complicated." He went right back to looking over the pages in front of him as though she wasn't even there.

Victoria didn't even want to give these people the energy required to get angry. They didn't deserve it. She just walked out, only giving a moment to thank the maid for her time and assure the woman she could find her way out. That Nathan prick was right about one thing, she was an excellent tracker, and it was better than putting up with this bullshit.

* * *

It never stopped freaking Victoria out whenever she had a job on a school campus. All that mundanity served as a perfect reminder of the life she wasn't ever going to get. Sure, she loved what she did 90% of the time, but every now and then, she couldn't help but wish for things to be a touch more boring. It didn't help that she could see a million cute hipster art girls wandering around from the bench she was sitting on. Sure, traveling meant quite a few opportunities to kiss the occasional girl. But with some time to just sit and wait for sunset, Victoria inevitably began crafting a silly fiction in her head where she attended a place like this, did something cliché like photography, joined a club, went to parties, made out with girls who wanted to experiment.

She was so caught up in this story that she nearly missed the fact that her target had left the girls' dormitory building and was walking briskly toward the woods at the rear end of the campus. She hoisted up her bag of gear and headed after her, always at a respectable distance. The girl suddenly stopped short, seemingly for no reason at all. That was until she retrieved a covered box and began twisting the dial on a lock to open it up.

Victoria hurried to scamper up into a nearby tree until she could find a branch she felt comfortable putting her weight on, watching intently. This Kate girl was either a wolf or maybe just a weirdo. She took her hair out of its bun and it tumbled out into a huge mane of curls, and she began slipping shamelessly out of her dress. Okay, correction... she's either a wolf or a witch who likes to dance naked in the light of a full moon. _No judgments here girl..._ Normally Victoria might have at least given her target some kind of privacy or whatever, but she was on the hunt, and for now that couldn't really be a part of the equation. So she watched like a creeper as Kate continued to disrobe, placing everything in the box, and locking it before covering it up once more.

This wasn't the first time she'd seen someone change. But it had never been so seamless before. There was very little crying out in pain, only some mild grunting, even as bones reshaped and fur emerged. The girl below simply... became a wolf. Victoria drew her treasured crossbow and loaded up a silver-tipped arrow, put up the hood of her jacket, and started off along the branches as the wolf started exploring the woods.

Victoria had been expecting to trail her to houses on the other side of the forest, somewhere she could find a human to eviscerate. But when it became clear that she was remaining fully within the bounds of the place, she assumed that perhaps the wolf just wanted to hunt down some animal prey. Sure enough, Kate went sniffing wildly through some bushes and emerged in a little clearing where a variety of critters were milling about. She held her breath, waiting for the inevitable carnage.

It never happened.

Instead, she gave one quick, excited bark, and bounded into the middle of the clearing, instantly flopping onto the grass and rolling about, exposing her belly plaintively. Squirrels, bunnies, and deer came over to greet her. They crawled over her, sniffing and nuzzling and investigating, one or two of them even giving their own little excited noises and dancing about. _It's like something out a freaking Disney movie..._ Victoria rubbed her eyes and stared hard, expecting at any moment an illusion would fall away and reveal the bloody mess below.

The impossible collective played through the night, running here and there, stopping at a tiny pond to get some water, and just generally having the most adorable time one could possibly imagine. Victoria knew this meant the real danger was still out there, and she ought to go back into town to search for more clues. But she was spellbound by the sheer insanity of it all. As obedient as you please, Kate eventually returned back to the place where she started and lay down to rest. With the rising of the sun, she changed back to her human form.

Again, Victoria knew she should go back, get coffee, reconvene with Nathan, and try to figure out a new plan of attack. But her curiosity was officially piqued. She climbed down from the tree, foolishly ignorant of where she was stepping, a stick snapping loudly beneath her feet.

Kate stirred, though she remained laying where she was with eyes closed, curled up on the ground. It couldn't possibly be that comfortable. "Mmrrnn, right, the hunter. If you're gonna kill me, can you give me like... five more minutes? I only just got to sleep..."

Victoria sighed and put her crossbow away. "I'm not going to kill you. I'd actually like to talk."

Finally the girl cracked open an eye and smiled. "Can I get dressed first? Or do you wanna ogle some more?" Huffing, she hurried to turn her back on Kate, waiting patiently for her to go through the process of retrieving her box and getting her clothes back on. Victoria suddenly felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder and she turned back to see a tired but otherwise cheerful face. "You got a car? I'm craving steak and eggs."

* * *

The Two Whales was every diner that existed in every town in America. Victoria had a theory that anyone with enough magical prowess could probably transport themself almost anywhere by utilizing the liminal space contained within. But regardless, they were useful places where you could eat like a king with just a five dollar bill, and that was precisely what the two of them intended to do.

Kate must have been a regular. When the waitress approached, obviously recognizing her, she smiled warmly and made a few notes on her pad. "Katie, I swear your cravings practically come and go with the moon. Rare steak, scrambled eggs, pitcher of water?"

"Yes, Joyce, thank you so much."

"And you, darlin'?"

Victoria brushed a hand through her hair and smiled warmly at the woman. She was the kind of person that required warm smiles. It was probably against the law to be rude to her. "If there's such a thing as super-caffeinated coffee, that would be great. And uh... I guess I'll just have what she's having." Joyce left them alone to put in the orders and Victoria looked back at Kate curiously. "So that's just, like, your thing then? You're just in possession of the most insane level of patience and kindness ever?"

Kate giggled softly. "What, disappointed because I didn't cause any mayhem last night and now you don't get to enjoy killing me?"

"...no but yes?" That answer didn't seem to make Kate any less wary of her and she decided to quickly explain. "Something... bad happened, and all signs pointed to a wolf. But apparently you're the only one around, so... I mean... I'm back to square one for the moment."

"Right, Rachel Amber. Yeah, pretty much everyone in town loved her. It really sent a ripple through the place when the news was released. I remember thinking at the time that 'wild animal' sounded like a serious cop-out. But I'm also probably biased." She sighed softly, only gaining her smile again when Joyce returned with the massive pitcher of water and two glasses. "Is it weird that I kind of want to apologize because it's _not_ my fault? Like I wish I could just provide the easy answer and say it's my fault."

"Let's just split the difference and say it's as sweet as it is weird." Victoria poured herself out some water and took a long drink, unaware just how dehydrated she was herself. "Speaking of being sweet, how the hell did you control your wolf side like that? I thought at any moment Bambi and Thumper were gonna be dinner."

Their food arrived in what must have been record time, and she instantly understood why Kate liked this to be her ritual. It smelled amazing. The two of them dug in for a while, Kate eating voraciously until she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be explaining herself. "Okay, hand to God, my family was actually cursed by a witch back during the trials ages ago. Reverend Marsh accused a woman of witchcraft, turned out it was true. Burning there on the stake, she swore that every member of his line would suffer at the hands of their true, bestial nature. Translation: we're werewolves forever. The only way to counteract a curse is with more magic and the Marsh clan tends to have... conservative views on magic of any kind. So we learn to control it, and usually have a pretty good handle on things by adolescence."

Victoria chuckled and chowed down on another hunk of steak, following it up with a healthy sip of coffee. "Just in time to learn how to deal with hormones and all that other shit instead. Honestly, that's far from the weirdest thing I've seen in my life. I mean, I've worked with actual modern witches in the here and now. So a family curse isn't that bizarre."

The girl across from her leaned her chin on top of her hand and smiled at her softly. "I'd love to hear more about all these adventures of yours. Truth be told, except for the whole transformation thing, I'm about as boring as they come."

"Nothing wrong with that. I could use a little 'boring' in my life sometimes." It came so naturally for Victoria. Go on a mission, run into some cute girl, flirt a little, see what happens, broken heart, go back home to lick her wounds. It was a vicious cycle and she fell into it every time with gusto. If Victoria had to guess, Kate didn't seem to mind too much. Vaguely aware that both their plates were swiftly emptying, Victoria figured it was probably time to get on with her day and actually solve this damn mystery. "Want a ride back to your fancy school?"

Kate retrieved a twenty from her purse and put it on the table – enough to cover their food along with a tip of almost 100%. "Actually... Look, if I'm imposing, just tell me so. But if there's someone out there, either a fellow wolf or a terrifying impersonator, then I want to help stop them. I don't need any more hunters coming around, assuming I'm the killer."

This was generally the part where Victoria would have to shut things down. She couldn't let anyone get in trouble. She couldn't drag anyone into the line of fire. And she couldn't actually get close to them, couldn't know them. Not when she had to eventually get on the move to the next big disaster. Victoria absolutely, positively could not let Kate come along with her. The girl had to maintain her boring-ness. That was of the utmost importance.

"Yeah, okay."


	2. A Minor Hitch

The girls climbed into Victoria's car as she continued to question herself about letting Kate come along. On the one hand, if she was a werewolf from birth, then she was definitely in possession of some skills she could use to defend herself. On the other hand, she was still technically a suspect, but ultimately a bystander who should never have been caught up in her mission. Rather than think too hard about any of that messy stuff, she decided to address a question she had been mulling over all night. "So... when I woke you up this morning, you didn't look terribly surprised to see me."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I mean I caught your scent right around the time I was heading into the woods. But I figured if you were dangerous you would have just attacked me. If you were trailing me, and you saw that I was harmless, then I would be fine."

Victoria glanced over in her direction quickly, feeling a tiny fire stoking in her chest. "Kate! That's such a dangerous outlook! Most hunters wouldn't have been as careful as me and you would have ended up dead!"

To her surprise, and mild embarrassment, Kate just looked back at her with a bright smile and a little giggle. "And it would seem God was on my side last night, because here I am, un-perforated by arrow or bullet."

"You are... legitimately terrifying..." She drove in silence for a moment until finally the next logical question bubbled its way up to the surface, unwilling to be held back. "What did I smell like?"

She actually contemplated her answer for a moment, though Victoria wasn't certain what that meant. "Hmm, vanilla... stress-smoked cigarettes... and just a hint of violet." It made more sense than she was willing to admit.

* * *

As Victoria drove herself and her passenger up the road, it occurred to her that the Prescott estate was probably not the safest place in the world for a werewolf girl. She came to a stop in the long-ass driveway and turned to look at her with an apologetic frown. "Listen, Kate, I think it might be best for you to stay here for now. The Prescotts are pretty hardcore people..."

Kate actually huffed and crossed her arms. "Why does everyone think I'm so useless! I can do stuff..."

"That's not..." she began before cutting herself off with a soft sigh. "Look, these people clearly do not give a fuck. They have an entire room that's nothing but trophies from kills. A stuffed werewolf head, the hand from a nosferatu, an entire case filled with pinned faeries. I wasn't even comfortable with it, and this is my job, y'know?"

A slender hand came to rest against her shoulder, and she turned to see Kate still smiling that same gentle way at her. It made her want to believe, even if she wasn't sure in what. "That's because you clearly care. And I know you're not gonna let anything bad happen to me. So let's do this."

Against the gnawing pit in her stomach, Victoria nodded her agreement and climbed out with Kate in tow, heading for the front door. They were greeted by the same maid from the day before who led them to a sitting room, which was thankfully not that damn trophy room. The room was otherwise unoccupied, with just a few fancy, uncomfortable couches and some crappy art on the walls. It was probably only a minute before Nathan walked in, but it seemed to take forever. The door closed behind him, and the next thing Victoria knew, he was drawing a gun and pointing it directly at Kate. On instinct, she jumped to her feet and stepped between them. "Down boy! That's not necessary!"

"She... She's the wolf! You were supposed to kill her, not bring her back here for tea and fucking biscuits..." She could see that his hand was trembling slightly, and as much as she wanted to take comfort from that fact... well... All it took was one bad twitch and someone would be limping out of this place, or riding away in an ambulance.

Victoria continued to hold her position between them, even knowing she might take a bullet in the gut for someone she barely knew. But at this point it was a matter of ethics, of principle. "As I recall, you told me my primary job was to track, which is exactly what I did. And I'm telling you, she's harmless." She glanced back at the werewolf who seemed a touch offended by her assessment. "Sorry, but in my defense, you were literally frolicking with the woodland critters last night." That explanation seemed to satisfy her, and she shrugged in a 'what can ya do?' way.

That didn't satisfy Nathan, however, who was still brandishing the gun. "She's a monster, and we're hunters. C'mon, Victoria, this isn't a calculus problem. We kill creatures like her."

That certainly helped to put things into perspective. Victoria's eyes narrowed. "Maybe that's how you bumblefuck rich-boy hunters do things. But in the guild, we don't hurt the innocent. We help them, we provide counseling and cures. We don't fill people full of holes because they need to drink blood or sizzle at the touch of pure iron."

Finally, thank God, he put the gun away, though he looked like he might draw it again at a moment's notice. "Great, so we bring you in to quickly sort out this issue and instead you've made it more complicated. I told dad it was pointless to reach out to the guild. You wanna stick around and clean up your own mess, be my guest. But we're done here."

Victoria knew that for the honor of her clan, and real hunters everywhere, she should stick around and give this idiot what-for. But he was right about one thing, something was still wrong and they didn't have the luxury of petty arguments. People had died and their killer was still running around at large. If these ass-hats were too good to dig into a proper mystery, she was happy to do it. It just sucked losing access to all their neat toys.

She grabbed Kate's hand and dragged her back outside, grateful for the fresh air to quiet her mind. She only released her hold when she reached the driver's seat and got in behind the wheel. As soon as Kate was seated, before she even buckled up, the vehicle was roaring to life and they took off back into the main part of the city.

* * *

After some silence, Kate cleared her throat nervously, obviously trying to get her attention more than anything. "Uh, I hate to further derail this whole investigation thing, but it occurs to me I'm still coated in a fine layer of dust and detritus. Any chance we could stop by my school so I can grab a quick shower and a change of attire?"

Victoria released a heavy sigh, though her aggravation was in no way directed at her passenger. "Yeah, of course... I should do the same. I've got two more nights with full moons to solve this mystery, so I might as well check into the nearest motel." She piloted her precious car back in the direction of the academy.

Kate seemed to still have something on her mind because she cleared her throat again. "I'm going to be honest. I don't really get it. I was always taught that a hunter was just a hunter. I mean, yeah, each individual person will do their own thing. But what's this whole guild/independent thing about?"

"At the expense of making it sound boring and petty – which it is – it's basically a class dispute. Guild hunters like my family tend to be relatively middle-class. We pay fees and dues, and in return the guild provides insurance, meals, community, and much more. Independent hunters come in two breeds. There are the mercenary types who basically do it for a living, and while they're kind of unscrupulous, they're also generally pretty decent people. The ones you need to watch out for are hunters like the Prescotts. Money is no issue for them, and they see no need for the guilds. They hunt out of a sense of moral superiority, as you just saw. They think humans are the dominant species, and therefore have a natural imperative to strike down every single non-human they can." She hardly even realized she'd pulled up into the tiny parking lot and began to laugh bashfully. "Jeez, I kinda got wound up there. Um, I'll be back in about an hour and we can pick up where we left off. Wait, you're a student. Don't you have... class or... whatever?"

Kate just laughed and shook her head as she reached for the door handle. "I have almost perfect attendance, and taking off a few days to be a secret hero sounds totally worth it. So. See you in an hour." Kate got out of the car and... well... as much as Victoria was sad to see her go, as they say, she enjoyed watching her leave.

* * *

Victoria was taught early on how to take 'military' showers, which is basically a bare-bones kind of cleaning, in and out within five or ten minutes. Try as she might, she could never fully un-learn the practice. If she spent longer than fifteen minutes washing, it felt like she was wasting water or pampering herself too much.

Granted, grubby motel rooms tended to exacerbate that habit. You never really felt truly clean after using these kinds of bathrooms. Even in the 'nice' ones, the cleaning staff were only human, they couldn't get out the deep stains.

Needless to say, she was done with a fair amount of free time. With her energy levels already flagging again, she stopped off at a local coffee shop for their biggest caffeine soup possible before heading to the campus to just people-watch for a time. Almost a day later, she felt like she was more aware of things. Even as all the students went about their business, an air of sadness and misery hung over the whole place. Perhaps the legends about this Rachel Amber girl were true, judging by how many people looked troubled by her death.

And then there was... her. Looking out across the lawn next to the dormitory, she could see two sad girls sitting together. The one with the dyed hair was weeping openly. The freckled one was comforting her. Victoria could just make out some of the words she was saying. "...everyone else is moving on... I just... so much... She was my..." She didn't want to listen in on an entire private monologue about this, but it pertained to the case. And without the backing of an influential local family, Victoria needed every clue she could get.

So she approached them slowly, and both girls immediately looked in her direction with rather defensive glares. "Excuse me, I was just wondering if either of you could tell me anything about Rachel Amber?"

The crying girl wiped her eyes and, surprisingly, began laughing. "Hah... Sister, if you got a couple spare hours, I could maybe tell you the short version..."


	3. Little Distractions

Before the lanky one could say anything, the tiny one stopped her, looking warily at Victoria. "Chloe, hang on, you can't just go spilling stuff to someone who appears out of nowhere. What's your angle?"

Victoria wished she had thought to bring some of her fake credentials with her. For now she was just going to have to talk her way through this. All she needed was a lead, some little scrap of information that could guide her to the next key. Then she could leave these poor grieving students alone. "Victoria Chase. I'm an intern with a Seattle paper. They finally threw me a bone and gave me a story to work on. But I'm getting the feeling that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye."

She continued to stare her down with eyes narrowed. "Oh, really? I spent some time in Seattle, which paper do you work for?"

Shit. Victoria hurried to search her mind for the right name, but somehow she knew that the uncertainty showed on her face already. "The Stranger... I wanted to work for someone who actually covered real news."

"I'm calling bullshit." Both of them stood up, now looking on the verge of true anger. "What are you hiding?"

"You've got five seconds to explain yourself before I paint this quad red with your fucking blood, blondie."

Practically a blur, Kate appeared between the three of them, decidedly blocking Victoria off from the bitter attackers. "W-Wait! Hold on, she didn't mean any harm... Victoria really is trying to help." She glanced back at her, as if silently urging her to do something, though she really had no clue what that was. "Look, don't freak out, but she's a hunter."

They absolutely did freak out, especially the one whose name was apparently Chloe. "What, like it's not already bad enough to have Prescott creeping around here? Now we have another one? Why am I supposed to be happy about that? How can I possibly believe she'll be any help?"

"Because she could have killed me last night when she saw me transform and thought I was the one who... who killed Rachel... She could have let Nathan shoot me this morning when he still insisted I was the one. But she didn't. She's one of the good ones."

That didn't necessarily help her case any, and the other girl took a step forward. "Kate, you let a... a _hunter_ watch you change? And you're just hanging out with her? Have you totally lost your mind? Y-You could have died..."

This whole argument probably could have gone on forever, and as much as Victoria understood that tensions were high when everyone was mourning... well... she still had a job to do. She cleared her throat and looked at them over Kate's shoulder. "Hi, excuse me, um, if you guys want to hate or distrust me that's totally cool. I just... would really like to solve this whole murder thing."

"Wait, murder?" Chloe started to deflate just a little. "So you really do think there's more to this?"

"Maybe we should sit back down..."

* * *

Things weren't exactly calm yet, but it was better now that Kate was around to mediate. Victoria did her best to explain the situation to them – the guild, the summons from the Prescotts, Kate being named a suspect, following her, the Disney-esque frolicking, going back to see Nathan and him pulling a gun. Some of this information did not serve to make them any more calm, but at least they were finally starting to understand that Victoria wasn't out to harm anyone.

The freckled one, Max, rubbed her neck nervously and attempted to smile at her. "I'm sorry about all the hostility but there's something you should probably know about this place."

Chloe looked instantly in Max's direction. "What? Isn't that, like, _verboten_ or whatever?"

"Keeping it hidden isn't going to do her any good, and it will probably clear a few things up." She glanced back at Victoria, obviously super nervous about saying whatever was on her mind. "Blackwell is composed almost exclusively of students like Kate. Non-humans and creatures. The small number of humans we do have are magic users and druids. We even have a technomancer."

That information was probably meant to be more of a shock, but Victoria had been at this just long enough that it kinda made sense. "So are we talking like a Hogwarts/Xavier kind of scenario?"

"No, smartass, it's still just a school. But instead of exclusivity based on gender or race, it's... Jeez, I dunno what we're even calling it these days. Wyrdness?" Chloe shrugged, perhaps not too concerned with the terminology.

Victoria's brain quickly connected the dots and filled in the gaps. "Okay, so then you two are...?"

They all shared a look and then shrugged nearly simultaneously. "I'm a banshee," Chloe said plainly before motioning to her friend. "Max here is literally my manic pixie dream girl." Poor Max's face turned beet red, and Victoria got the impression she was being told more than one secret at the moment. "And Rachel is... fuck, _was_... a skin-walker."

She was starting to tear up again, and Max began rubbing her back soothingly. "Her mother's side of the family is native, and they've been passing down the ability for generations. That's why it's so weird that this could happen. She knew how to take care of herself. If someone came at her, she could've just transformed into a bear and ended the situation."

Victoria looked back out across the campus and then around at the other girls sitting with her. "Is it cool if I ask... I mean... I'm looking around and everyone here looks pretty human. I mean, that makes sense for anyone with shapeshifting abilities. But..."

Kate motioned out across the horizon to a lighthouse in the distance. "A mass variable glamour charm. It only affects humans' perceptions of us. Blackwell is a haven for its students, but the rest of the town, not so much. We already knew the Prescotts were trouble since they have enough money to just buy whatever they need. But to see just how vicious they are as hunters makes me... nervous."

"Makes me suspicious more than anything," Victoria muttered softly before looking back at Chloe. She was obviously the closest to Rachel. "Other than that, we don't really have much in the way of a lead.. Please, we just need a starting point."

Chloe made a show of sighing dramatically. "American Rust. It's a junk graveyard. We hung out there sometimes. It's... also where she was... found... If you think something weird is happening, Kate can show you how to get there, and might be able to sniff something out."

Thank christ, finally something useful. Victoria got to her feet and smiled at Chloe as warmly as she could. "Thank you. I promise, if there's anything there, we'll find it." She pulled Kate up next to her and was about to walk off when Chloe grabbed her arm and held her back. "Um, go on ahead Kate, my car's in the parking lot." She looked back at the others, some fear starting to return to her. What the hell was this all about?

"I need to be very clear about something. The moon is full and I understand that there's a lot of power hiding in that adorable girl. But Kate is still just a teen girl, and an innocent, abstinent Christian cinnamon roll with a soul that is too pure for this world. If she gets hurt, or shot, or stabbed... if she comes back from this with a thousand yard stare... if you break her heart? I will hunt you down, and I will scream and wail and keen until your brain liquefies and melts out your tear ducts. Are we clear?"

Having faced down countless monsters, Victoria thought she had overcome fear. She was wrong. "...u-understood..." Her arm was rather roughly let go and she stumbled away to her car as fast as her legs would carry her. She found Kate leaning next to the vehicle with a face as red as a cherry. "You okay?"

"I can never tell if Chloe actually forgets how good my hearing is or if she just doesn't care..." Kate reached for the door handle and climbed inside, apparently having no interest further discussing the matter. Victoria was in agreement there. "Anyway, American Rust isn't too hard to get to. It's right off the highway."

Victoria figured her own guilt and fear about getting someone else hurt was bad enough. But no, having an entire cluster of students ready to gut her for one misstep was way worse.

* * *

The place was, in many ways, completely unremarkable. As far as Victoria could tell, it was exceptional only in that it was distant and uninhabited. But for a certain breed of loner, that was good enough.

Finding the place where Rachel's body was discovered wasn't terribly difficult. There were still remnants of police tape, and the hole hadn't been filled in yet. But just enough time had passed that they no longer needed someone around to guard the spot. There wasn't anything for Victoria to pick up on visually, so for now she just had to stand aside and let Kate do her thing.

The girl crouched down, then looked back at her with her brow knit together slightly. "Um, I'm not entirely sure how to say this. Can you stand a little further back, and more down-wind? There's already a ton of rust and metal everywhere. You're a little distracting." Kate caught on too late that she probably could have phrased that better and tried to course correct. "N-Not... I mean, not in a bad way. In a good way."

Victoria raised an eyebrow at her, smirking before she could gain control of her lips. "Distracting in a good way?"

"Not... Augh! Just... stand over there? Please?" Chuckling, Victoria moved over to where she pointed before the wolf girl died from embarrassment, keeping any further commentary to herself. Kate bent down and picked up some of the dirt, rubbing it between her fingertips and inhaling slowly. "That's her..."

Victoria frowned. "Even now?"

She took another whiff, sighing sadly. "Well there's... I can still smell her just a little all around here. But this is where her body was. It's more... sour. It brings back a lot of memories, but it also tarnishes them a little."

"I'm sorry. You don't have to do this. I'm sure there's something else we can do if this is too much for you."

Kate's head shook slowly and she grabbed a new chunk of dirt for another sniff. "No... There's more here... We need something to go off of. Wait... that's..." Surprisingly, she lifted her fingers to her mouth and took a small taste of it. "Shit."

One got the impression Kate didn't curse often. This must have been bad. "Find something?"

"Two somethings. You want the bad news or the really bad news first?" She stood, brushing her hands off and stepping closer.

"I guess start with the regular bad?" Victoria crossed her arms and looked back out across the junkyard. Even as actual information started to surface, she couldn't get that word out of her head. _Distracting. I'm distracting. That's probably bad, even if it's good._

"Nathan's involved, which I'm sure comes as no surprise at all. Obviously I can't tell how or to what degree. But he was definitely there when she was buried." Kate messed with her hair a bit, taking one last glance at the temporary burial site. "The real problem is far more disconcerting. It's like... a non-scent. A void."

"I mean, there's some stuff that doesn't really smell like anything, right?" Admittedly, Victoria had no clue how much her puny human nose was incapable of detecting. But the idea of something like that not existing was bizarre.

"Even when we think something smells normal, it's still got something to it that makes it unique. Plastic, clean clothes, sterile hospital tools, they all smell like something. This is very clearly someone who has gone to great lengths to make themself undetectable, probably through magic. Which, ironically, comes across as far more obvious than if they had just worn a suit made out of dryer sheets. The only thing I really know for certain is that I've experienced that same void scent around Blackwell..."

The hunter gave an exhausted groan, rubbing the bridge of her nose slowly. "Well, at any rate this means we'll have to go back to find Nathan, and actually confront him on purpose this time. Instead of, y'know, him walking into the room and just drawing a gun on us..."

"He'll be at Blackwell by now. He wouldn't bring a weapon on school grounds, would he?" Kate looked hopeful. Victoria wasn't so sure.


	4. The Cavalry's Here

As they returned to Victoria's car, Kate began texting her friends back at the academy to figure out where the hell Nathan was. Despite having already bugged him twice in 24 hours, Victoria was afraid that she was going to have to do it again. Because she couldn't be certain exactly how guilty he was, but he was pretty clearly involved in some shady shit.

Neither of them was really confident enough to make any suppositions, so they drove to Blackwell in silence. It was tense and uncomfortable. Dealing with Nathan seemed like a scary enough prospect. But news of a second, mysterious person was particularly worrying, especially because Victoria really didn't have a frame of reference for how someone could mask their scent like that. Probably magical, which meant dealing with a freaking wizard. Those were always the worst missions because some magic-users were basically just humans with hard-ons for power.

Outside the school, Victoria and Kate stood next to her car's trunk, the blonde coughing nervously. "Given our boy's tendencies and philosophy, I think we should split up. I promise this isn't just me protecting you or whatever, this is important. I'm going to go talk to Nathan, shake him down if I have to. I need you to gather up your friends Max and Chloe, plus anyone else with muscles, magic, and a grudge against Rachel's killer. Whoever Nathan's partner is, it sounds like they creep around Blackwell too. Build a network, do some more sniffing, figure out whatever you can."

Kate nodded seriously, and seemed to appreciate being given a legitimate job instead of just being told to go hide and wait. "Yeah, I can think of more than a few people who might have a score to settle. Are you planning on building an army?"

"I really, really hope it doesn't come to that. One person has already been hurt, possibly more. I'm not interested in adding to the body count. That being said, Blackwell is populated by students with way more power than I could ever hope to have. It seems smart to have everyone waiting in the wings."

Kate's phone dinged as she received another message. "Lucky for you, Nathan just went to his room. Ummm, I think... Hayden might know which room is his." It didn't take Kate too much more texting to get the information they needed. "Here we go. Room 111." She shifted her footing, looking around awkwardly for a second or two. "Um, j-just... be careful okay? And if he pulls a gun, just knee him in the balls and come find me." Surprisingly, Kate pushed up onto the balls of her feet and kissed Victoria's cheek before hurrying off to locate her friends.

In something of a daze, Victoria checked to make sure she had her knife on her before striding off toward the dormitory building.

* * *

There were a few guys loitering around who gave her weird looks for being on their floor. But Victoria hoped that her determined pace would keep them from bothering her. It wasn't exactly hard to find room 111, and without warning Victoria gave the door a few heavy knocks. "Nathan! My capacity to deal with bullshit grows ever more faint, so you better open this fucking door."

"Jesus, it's unlocked... Christ, come in, just keep it down..." The response was immediate and surprising nonchalant. As requested, she opened the door and stepped inside, closing it again behind her. The room was dim, lit by a single small lamp. Nathan was laying on his bed, hands resting on his stomach, staring at the ceiling. A nearby device was filling the room with the gentle noise of ocean water and whale song. "So, I'm guessing you've found something. Figured you'd get there sooner or later."

"Uhhh, yeah. You were there when Rachel was killed. So I'm gonna need you to start talking." Victoria really tried to be more forward, but the whale song and the soft lights made it hard to be aggressive.

Having apparently expected as much, Nathan just sat up against his headboard and motioned for Victoria to join him. Confused by his oddly welcoming behavior, all she could really do was sit down cross-legged on the foot of the bed, watching him curiously. "My family's been in the area basically since it was settled. It's been a Prescott tradition to take over the town one bit of land and property at a time. I guess so we can eventually run the place like some kind of fucking plutocracy. But dad, he's probably crazier than any of them. You know what he wants? He wants an Arcadia Bay that's populated with nothing but humans."

"Sounds like it would be kind of tough, what with Blackwell being here and all. Not to mention wildly illegal and unethical."

"Yeah, it's... it's not great. It's why my sister got the hell out of Dodge the minute she could. It's why I felt just a tiny spark of excitement when dad told me I'd be going here. So I could hang out with people who weren't crazy hunters. Until he informed me it's because he wanted someone on the inside here so he could take it over more easily. I've mostly just tolerated his insanity, because, what the fuck else am I gonna do? But then he went and hired somebody, told me to learn from him, do what he says. And just when I thought my dad was the real nutbag, this guy, Mark Jefferson, he... h-he's fucked." For a moment, it looked like Nathan might actually vomit from thinking about it too much.

Victoria's head tilted to the side as she tried to correlate everything Nathan was saying with the information she already had. Things still weren't lining up perfectly, but it didn't help that she still assumed Nathan to be a 'bad guy'. "Fucked how?"

"Dad just wants to kick monsters out of Arcadia Bay, run the town. But this guy wants all monsters dead. Worse, he's figured out how to consume them to steal their life force. Like... a necromancer, but worse. Even got a job here at the school so he could start his mad quest by gaining the trust of everyone around him." Nathan reached for a nearby remote and turned off the sounds that filled the room. "He's been wanting me to help him in getting students somewhere he can get them alone. His brilliant plan was to push the blame onto someone else by making it look like a wolf had done it."

Victoria still saw one glaring gap in this story, and as much as her heart wanted to believe that Nathan was ultimately good, there was still evidence that he had been involved in Rachel's murder. "So you brought her to the junkyard and he did the dirty deed?"

Nathan shook his head, and the look of sheer sadness on his face was clear as day. Victoria felt like she was a pretty good judge of character, but even if she weren't, this was unmistakable. "No. What happened to Rachel was... a huge mistake. Jefferson was bugging me to pick somebody, and I just couldn't do it. So I went to the junkyard to cool my head. Rachel was there too. I think... for the same reason. We ran into each other and started talking. Jefferson must have been tailing me and mistook what was happening for me marking her. He turned into a gigantic wolf and pounced, neither of us had a chance to react. I was..." He slammed his fist into the bed with an unimpressive thud. "I didn't have any weapons on me. I-I couldn't do a damn thing! It was over in seconds. He... congratulated me. We cleaned up the evidence, left more obvious clues, and went our separate ways."

"But he's getting antsy again. Wants another fix. Your dad hired me to clean up suspicions from the first murder so that the two of you could move on to the next one. Keep picking off students until the entire bay feels unsafe and every non-human with a sense of self-preservation goes somewhere safer. That's why you've been so jumpy." This was definitely not good. Victoria had assumed her ticking clock was the full moon, but this Jefferson guy could attack at any time in any form. The only clue for his next attack would be almost completely based on how hungry the dude became. "Well, the only person that's gonna die is Marky Mark."

"Better split from the Funky Bunch while I can."

Victoria smirked. Nathan might not have been doing so hot, but he still had a chance at a normal life. "Actually to be more accurate, we're putting together a Funky Bunch. And I think we're gonna need your help."

* * *

It was... a very tense meeting.

Everyone gathered next to a totem, supposedly known as 'Tobanga'. Along with Victoria and Nathan, there were the three girls she already knew and a collection of other students. Kate had gathered a surprising number of allies. There was Warren and Brooke, an alchemist and a technomancer; a nymph named Dana; a vampire girl with her hood up and massive sunglasses named Alyssa; Stella, a quiet satyr; and a strange pair, an angel called Taylor and a demon called Courtney.

Not a single one of them was really happy to see Nathan there, and repeating his story to the gathered crowd wasn't going over well. The boy obviously didn't have a great reputation, and regardless of innocence, the revelation that he had helped lead to Rachel's death wasn't helping. Nor was any of them ready to believe that Jefferson was somehow the true culprit.

"That's like... seriously fucking crazy. Jefferson is the coolest teacher we've ever had." Taylor, seemingly speaking for both herself and her companion, looked thoroughly unconvinced.

Alyssa nodded, glaring at Nathan over the top of her glasses. "Yeah, he's always super helpful and really nice. Kinda hard to believe he'd be capable of something like that." The obvious subtext being that Nathan, however, did seem like the type.

Victoria noted that only Kate seemed to be on the verge of understanding. There was definitely something on her mind. She was cautious to speak up, but finally she found a gap in conversation she could use. "At the junkyard, there was something that was seriously bothering me. There was this... I think maybe it was magic, keeping me from being able to smell something. I hadn't been able to place it until right now. I've been having that same experience here, in Mr. Jefferson's room. It's not the most airtight evidence, but it's enough for me to be suspicious. And really, there's only one way to prove if this is true or not." Kate took a long, deep breath. "Nathan, he probably still wants me dead to cover his tracks. Tell him Victoria refused to do it, and point out that consuming a werewolf will probably give him some pretty good power. I can act as bait to draw him out."

As if to drive home the point about how much everyone here liked Kate, they all grew indignant almost simultaneously. For a moment, it was hard to pick out a single voice from the cacophony. At least, until Chloe decided to utilize her supernatural volume. "Hey! Cut that shit out!" Things went silent in a hurry. "We're all practically adults here. We can handle this reasonably. Besides, Victoria knows that if this ends badly, I will straight-up murder her. So I say, trust Kate to trust Victoria to trust Nathan. It's all we've got right now." She cracked her knuckles, just for effect. "Plus, I'm damn sure not gonna let the three of you do this alone. This asshole killed my... my Rachel. And I want a piece."

"Likewise," added Max, her hands beginning to crackle with aetherial energy. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

In spite of everything, it looked like Victoria had managed to gather herself an army. She nudged Nathan gently with her elbow. "What'd I tell you? Funky Bunch." He smirked and playfully slugged her on the shoulder.


	5. Garbage Boy Stink-Man

Everyone was coordinating on what their role and position would be that night when suddenly Victoria felt something take her hand. Without warning, she was dragged across the quad toward the dorms by Kate. She looked quite determined. Saying nothing, Kate brought her through the main door, down the hall, and into her dorm.

Victoria looked around and gave an awkward chuckle, trying to ignore the fact that she was pretty damn nervous about whatever this was. "Less than twenty four hours and I'm already in your dorm. I think that's a record."

"Victoria..." she said with a sigh. Her voice betrayed just how tense she was underneath it all.

"I'm sorry. This is kind of a new situation for me. I'm used to working with mostly humans and hiding all the weird shit I actually get up to. It's different, me being the 'strange' one."

Slowly that warm smile returns, and suddenly Kate is hugging her tightly. "I just wanted to pull you aside for a second to thank you. I'm not really used to being trusted to handle things myself. I guess maybe I just wanted a chance to prove that I can be strong."

Victoria knew what it was to have some poor damsel pull her in and kiss her simply because they could, because they wanted to. It was less familiar to be hugged or touched so gently, simply because that was how they showed thanks and affection. "It's normal to be a team player when you work with a guild, but it took me a long time to learn that. I'm not sure I've really learned it yet. But the least I can do is pass along the advice I got. Letting others help you isn't the same thing as showing weakness. We're all gonna be there, so don't do anything stupid."

"That goes for you too..." she said, practically whispering.

They stood like that for a while, just embracing one another. Suddenly, Victoria's phone went off, causing both of them to jump, then separate with embarrassed laughter. Her hands fumbled the device a bit before she managed to answer it. "Yeah?"

Nathan's voice came over the line. "I called Jefferson. He'll be coming to the woods tonight. So whenever you finish making out with your new girlfriend, you two should probably get ready."

Her face must have instantly gone red because Kate gave her a questioning look. She turned slightly away from her and huffed. "Fuck you." She had meant for that to be aggressive but it ultimately came out almost affectionate. "We'll be there." Her phone hung up, she put it away and looked back at 'her girlfriend' and smiled weakly. "Time to saddle up."

* * *

Victoria was getting antsy, which didn't combine well with how tired she felt. Another night, another tree branch, another session spent watching Kate. Only this time, she was also keeping an eye toward the tree line around the clearing. Even knowing that the woods were littered with allies, she was honestly terrified. She'd gone up against the occasional novice magic-user who got too big for their britches. But never someone with this much experience or desire for power.

Kate had shifted into a wolf and was now nervously pacing around the clearing. Victoria gently rubbed the bridge of her nose. _C'mon, girl, do some stage business. Make it look natural. Oh what the fuck am I saying? He has to know this is a trap. Literally the only edge we have is that he won't expect a crew of eight students jumping him._

A noise from nearby caught the attention of both Victoria and Kate as they simultaneously snapped their heads in the direction it came from.

And there he was, casual, calm, not even bothering to hide his approach. In his hand was a very wicked-looking knife. It was probably only meant to be for rituals, but it had been shined and sharpened, to leave one no doubt about its utilitarian purposes. Kate's back arched, the fur standing on end, and a low growl escaping her throat. "Oh, stop pretending you are either surprised or alone. I'm not really interested wasting my time with games and diversions." He raised the knife and it began to... well... glow wasn't quite the right word. It became enveloped in a dark swirling energy, and if Victoria had to guess, he was going to launch it straight at Kate.

Instincts took over and she launched herself from the tree, hitting the ground in a roll just as the bolt of darkness left the knife, striking her in the side and, worst of all, ruining her jacket in the process. Little bastard hurt a lot more than she was expecting, and she was finding it hard to get up to her feet. So instead she lay there on the ground, groaning in pain. Kate came up to her, nuzzling her and whimpering sadly. "Gonna take more than that to keep me down. Just uhh... just gonna need a sec..." She was vaguely aware of Jefferson drawing closer and that crackling sound of energy building up for another shot. "Unless we don't have a second, in which case I'm sorry for fucking up so hard..."

Unlike the other times she watched Kate shift, this was different. It was obviously more of an effort, and the sound of bones breaking and reshaping was obvious. She looked up and saw that the girl was more humanoid, up on her rear paws with massive claws on the front ones. And she looked mad.

The sound of a gun going off surprised everyone, almost as much as the knife suddenly flying out of Jefferson's hand, disrupting his spell. Nathan stepped out of the woods with his own gun drawn, and this time he didn't have that lack of confidence. He knew what he was doing. And he was happy to do it. "We're giving you one chance to end this peacefully. But I won't hesitate to put a bullet directly through your skull if you provide me an excuse."

He laughed loudly at that, not even out of bravado but genuine amusement. "Two amateurs and a mutt? I'll take my chances." There was a ripple in the air and the knife went zipping straight back into his hand.

"You're underestimating how much everyone loved her..." Victoria choked out as loud as she could. "There are a lot of people who want to see you hurt for what you did to Rachel, what you want to do to Kate and others. How long do you think you can really get away with it before the insanity claims you?"

"Honestly? I'd give him about... five minutes," Nathan said gruffly. And just like that, everyone else came wandering out of the trees. For a bunch of kids, they were pretty menacing. Chloe with her hood drawn, Max's wings flickering with raw natural magic, Dana covered in bark and poisonous spines, Taylor and Courtney with matching swords of fire and ice, Brooke flanked by golem bots, Warren holding water bottles filled with some kind of horrid ichor, Alyssa's eyes burning red and fangs bared, and Stella gripping a massive ornate staff.

Granted, most of them were just there for the sake of intimidation. But it turned out to be a good idea to have so many others along as Jefferson flicked the knife in his hand and summoned up his own little undead army. At that point, things went a little... hectic.

* * *

The army of teenagers went after the minions to the sound of clanks and bangs and explosions. Chloe and Nathan went straight for the man himself however. And much to her surprise, Kate remained by Victoria's side as she gathered her strength, defending her from any incoming baddies. Her claws tore through the chest of one of them, causing it to burst into a cloud of dust. Once there seemed to be some space for at least the two of them to breathe, she extended a hand to her and helped Victoria to her feet.

"Um, th-thanks... Jeez, some hero I am, making everyone else do the job for me..."

Kate shook her head. "It's not your fight, it's ours." Her voice was so strange, rough and grumbly. Only slightly a turn-on. "I believe someone told me letting others help you isn't the same as showing weakness. Now go, help Chloe and Nathan, we'll keep these things corralled!" She suddenly turned and attacked another one, reducing it to dust as well. She headed out as the sound of a gun shot and then a piercing scream flew through the trees for just a moment.

Victoria wasn't nearly as spry as she would have liked, but slowly she was getting over her wound. _Never gonna get over having my damn jacket ruined, I love this fucking thing._ Jefferson clearly hadn't gotten far because she eventually caught up on the other two cornering him, each looking angry for very different reasons. She stumbled a bit as she came up alongside them. "Yeah, that's the thing about you people. You spend all your time learning things and reading books. You never build up the cardio to-"

"You can save your quips." Nathan looked at her pointedly then back to Jefferson. She finally realized he was looking more than a little disturbed about something, and it wasn't just the bullet wound in his shoulder. His mouth hung open, the knife on the ground, his hands opened pleadingly. "We decided on a more fitting punishment than killing him. Let's get him back to the group"

* * *

Explaining things in these situations were usually a bitch and a half. But Victoria had never dealt with a police station that was almost half-monster. The entire group of them was talking with a gruff-voiced detective who looked incredibly tired. According to Kate, without the glamour on the town, she'd see that they were talking to an orc. "Okay, so I just gotta run down this one more time to make sure I got everything noted here correctly. This man killed Miss Amber, with intent to kill again. In the uh... ensuing melee, he was deafened by Miss Price, blinded by Miss Ward, knocked out by Mister Graham, captured by Miss Scott, and you all called us. Mr. Prescott (the older one) hired him in the first place with intent to support his murderous habit. Andddd... Miss... Chase? You were brought in as an unknowing accomplice. Jeez, I think that's just about everything. Christ, the boys are gonna love this one. Well, at least we don't have to worry about detaining him. Fancy-pants wizard circle up in Portland is sending someone out to take care of the mess." He gave a long, exhausted sigh and put away his notepad. "Hell of a night. You kids better get some sleep. And next time, leave it to the professionals, even if you are terrifyingly capable..."

Jefferson was taken away in the cop car, his knife bundled up in an entirely separate cop car. And just like that, everything was over. The students all went their separate ways, mostly toward the dorms to sleep after a long night. Nathan went with the police to deal with his father and the myriad questions they still had for him.

The exhaustion washed over Victoria in a wave. Kate, despite her now-diminutive status, still managed to catch her and hold her upright. "You realize that includes you, right? How long have you been up anyway?"

She chuckled softly, doing her best to still look like a hero. She failed, and ended up coughing instead as her body continued to heal. Even if the others managed to provide her with some light healing magic, whatever she'd been shot with was nasty. "Um, several days? I've done worse."

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should. If you're out traveling all the time and fighting, then you have to get your energy back! C'mon..." Not taking no for an answer, Victoria was once again led to Kate's dorm. She didn't even bother to flip on the lights. "Lie down, make yourself at home."

Victoria sat on the edge of her bed with a very tired chuckle, kicking off her shoes with some trouble. "I promise I won't make a joke this time. Um, y'know, you should sleep too. I can just take the couch there, it's really no-"

She was cut off rather suddenly by a needy kiss from the werewolf girl as she pushed her back onto the bed. It was so comfortable and warm and inviting – the bed and the kiss both. Victoria honestly wasn't even sure if she would manage to get this intimate with someone so sweet and gentle. But perhaps Chloe knew what she was doing when she threatened her. Hopefully, Victoria would never break her heart.

* * *

With the job done and rest earned, it was time for Victoria to move on. Sometimes this was the best part, sometimes it was the worst. This one was a real mixed bag, very bittersweet. She was decked out in a new leather jacket, a gift from Nathan, and some sunglasses. Kate was standing there looking so sad, and Victoria was feeling it too. The cynical side of her said it was because all they did was kiss and cuddle and she still hadn't gotten... further, but her sentimental side knew the truth. She'd met someone special.

"So..." Kate managed sadly. "Time for the cowgirl to mosey, huh?"

"It's the way of the job. Times like this, makes me wish for a boring nine-to-five."

"Yeah, you seem like you could use a little boring in your life."

"I get the impression you're pretty done with adventure at this point..."

"Not at all. I think I just prefer keeping it at a comfortable distance."

Victoria's face began to burn just a little. "And what kind of distance would you consider comfortable?"

"Well... Seattle isn't so far away. And there's always text messages. And... I graduate soon enough anyway. So um... I hope I'll be hearing from you again."

This was normally the part where Victoria had to rip the band-aid off. Connections and attractions made life messy and dangerous. She was on the road and she would always be on the road. She couldn't have some sedentary person constantly wondering when they would get that death notice from the guild. But... then again... what about someone who could clearly handle herself? Someone with a heart and a spine and who could occasionally could turn into a monster? A hunter with a werewolf girlfriend, it sounded cheesy, it sounded nice. "Girl I'm gonna blow up your phone until you wish you'd never given me your number."

Kate giggled and pulled her into a hasty kiss. Again, Victoria might have assumed she would want to keep that kind of thing hidden. But apparently not. "Good. And let me know when you're going to be in my neck of the woods again. With any luck, the lunar cycle will be on our side."

"I dunno, you make a cute wolf." Victoria kissed her again, winked, and climbed in the car. Nathan hopped in the passenger seat with an eye roll and a gagging motion. "Oh fuck you."

"Fuck you too," he chuckled softly and put on his own sunglasses while the car roared to life and started off down the road. Victoria looked into the rear view mirror and saw Kate waving goodbye to them. "I didn't even know that girl had a sex drive, much less an interest in girls. I feel like this explains a lot..."

Victoria glanced over at him, deciding not to talk too much about the girl that she still only kind of knew. "So you're sure I can't convince you to join the guild? I know it's not ideal, but the community can't be beat."

He nodded, then turned to stare out the passenger window. A moment or two of silence passed. "I need to meet up with my sister, Kristine. She's all I've got left, and... honestly she's a lot like Kate. She didn't like the way mom and dad did stuff, so she struck out on her own years ago. Last I heard, she got a call to go down to Brazil. Some kind of rare monster that's been giving the locals trouble. With mom dead and dad in jail, I dunno, I think it'll be good to just squad up and roll together for a while. A chance to get away from the bullshit of that town. Find myself. But who knows, maybe we'll end up working together again some day. Hopefully next time, I don't pull a gun on you and your girlfriend."

She wanted to point out that Kate wasn't her girlfriend, but the point seemed moot. So she just reached for the radio dial and turned up the classic rock as her car headed off down the highway toward Seattle.


End file.
